Municipal lighting and police signaling system.



J. P. BARRETT. MUNICIPAL LIGHTING AND POLICE SIGNALING SYSTEM.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 12,1911.

INVENTOB HN' P.

ATTORNEYS I l I I I l u I I J. P. BARRETT. v 'MUN IGIPAL LIGHTING AND POLICE SIGNALING SYSTEM.

urmonmn FILED JULY 12, 1911.

1,065,653, I Patented June 24,1913

2 SHEETS-SHEET a.

I I a: mz'mssz's: QINVENTOR: W JOHNP. BARRETT I Ama omrs JOHN P. BARRETT, or cnrcaeo, ILLIivoIs;

mUNIcIrAjL LIGHTING AND roman SIGNALING srsTEM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 24, 1913.

Application filed July 12, 1911. Serial No. 638,073. g 1' k I To all whom it may oncem:

Be it lmown that I, JOHN P. BARRETT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Municipal Lighting and Police Signaling Systems, of'which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the ac companying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to the art of signaling and its object is to provide a system for summoning a police offic'er or watchman while he is out upon his beat,

To this end my invention contemplates a combined street lighting and police signaling system in other words, the street lamps are used to signal the police, and my invention may thus be considered as an auxiliary system applicable to any ordinary or standard system of illumination. f

The system of n iy invention an electrical system and it is one of my portant objects to provide an arrangement which will be an auxiliary unit, as far'as possible, and which will be of universal adaptability, as' far as possible. Thus, any municipality which maintains an electric system ofstreet lighting may, by the use of my invention, utilize the street lamps for signaling purposes, the lighting circuits remaining substantially the same and the auxiliary circuits being merely added to or eiiectively associated therewith.

It is my object further to provide an auxiliary system, the use of which will not interfere with the standard requirements of fire underwriters and which is inexpensive to construct, which involves little wiring, and which is easily operated and maintained in proper condition.

It is well-known that, as a rule, particularly in; the larger cities, the various districts or beats, which are assigned respectively to the various police oficers or watchmen, are connected by telegraphic or telephonic communication with the police headquartersmalnng his rounds, each police "oilicerljor watchman mustcommunicate with the central oliice at predetermined intervals, 7 in other words, must ff pull the box, to make reports and to register the fact that he 011,:3ghity. Between the visits to'the dis,- t orheattelephone or tele raph instruv t, or "sending-station, r. 0x, as it is called, the policeofficer or watchman is.

likely to be anywhere-in the district or on the beat. and if the police headquarters wishes to communicatewith him, however urgent the mattermay be, there must be a delay until he makes his next visit tothe box. Such delays are dangerous and, if it were' always possible for the central police station to get the attention of the policeman on the beat, such prompt action might' 'eflfectively interfere with the escape of a culprit. Thus, by flashing the street lamps,.,inaccordance with my invention, the police ofiicer orwatchman on the beat may be apprised at any moment of the desire of the central ofliceto communicate with him, and he may proceed quickly to the hox'and make the desired connection. The want of an arrangementv of this kind has been felt in practically every municipality, but itis particularly emphasized in the case of large cities.

Crimes and cases'of misbehavior when reported to the central'police, over the tele phone for instance, may be taken care of by quick action, and this, .in accordance with my invention, is secured by the central ofice signaling the particular district or beat from vwhence the report came, so that the oficer may know that something has occurred within his reach which requires his attention. (r

In view of the fact that electric lighting circuits, such as are employed for street lighting, are often intricate and are varied,

particularly in the matter of. refinements which are controlled by the surrounding circumstances in each case, I make it a point to provide a system which is adapted to easily meet the various refinements and modifications and to meet the circuit ramifications which frequently result when a lighting system has been built up step by step during a number of years. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that my invention is not necessarily limited to street lighting, although itjis peculiarly adapted and related to such illumiriatien, but that it could well be employed in corinettion with an interior system, particularly in .large mercantile establishments where such a signaling arrangement might be found to be of special advantage.

The system of my invention requires the installation of a special switchboard and contactmechanisms at the distributing station and the employment of special mechanism at the police station. The police station is connected with the distributing station-by means of a cable comprising a number of conductors, and this constitutes the entire wiring except for some very simple- .wiring at the switchboard. So far as praccircuits. VVhen the circuits are properly set,

i visions. These divisions are marked-0E by' the dotted lines and are numbered from 1 to 6 respectively. The central police station corresponding to the selection made by the police, the signaling mechanism is setinto operation automatically and the lights are flashed, in accordance with a predetermined code it desired Tn case it is desired to apply the signaling system of my invention to a lighting system already in use, it would be found only in rare instances that the lighting circuits and the police districts would be co -extensive and it, therefore, becomes necessary to provide special means for limiting the flashing of the lights to a particular area as closely as possible. rlt is possible that when it is desired to signal one district or beat, some of the lights in an adjacent district or beat might be flashed; this, however, is not only permissible, but might really be desirable and, while the lighting circuits might be slightly changed to avoidthis being necessary, the inconvenience of such operation would not usually be enough to wara rant the expense and trouble of changing the lighting circuits. i

I have illustrated matically in the accompanying Which- 1 Figure l'is a view showing the general plan of my complete system; Fig. 2 is a more etailed representation of the operating parts at the distributing station and" at the police station; and Fig. 3 is a detail view draw ngs, in

illustrating the relation between the targets and the switches associated therewith.

Referring first to Fig. 1, where a street lighting system is shown as an example, it will be seen that the lighted and protected area is divided into six so-called police diis indicated at P and one distributing station is shownat D. In order that every conceivable combination might be kept in mind,I have shown lighting circuits which are confined to one heat, lighting circuits which extend threugh'more than one beat,

my invention diagram Loeaoaa beats with more than one lighting circuit, and beats with lighting circuits from more than one distributing station. The other distributing station, which I have shown as a matter of example, is shown at D The two distributing stations, so far as this invention is concerned, are substantial duplicates and the police station P is connected with each of them by means of a cable C. At the distributing station the electric generator A is provided, one terminal thereof being connected with the positive bus-bar 3 and the other being connected with the negative bus-bar l. The ordinary switchboard is indicated at S, this switchboard having a double pole switch5 for each of the line lighting circuits. One pair of terminals of each of the switches is connected across the bus-bars, in the ordinary manner, and the other terminals are connected across the line limbs. Thus, there are the line limbs a and Z) and the line limbs (1 a ai, and 6 The line limbs a and b are connected directly across the switch terminals and, of the other lines, the limb b is common, the other three being eventually connected together and to one of the last-named pair of terminals. Transformers T, T T and T are connected with the line limbs, the transformer T being connected across the line limbsa and b and the other three transformers being connected in parallel across the proper switch terminals of the left-hand switch 5. The local lighting circuits are shown at L, L, L and L It will be noted that the lighting circuit L is the line by itself vand that the other three circuits in other line. There is an individual return for each of the lines L L If, so that they can be individually controlled, as will be pointed out presently, although they finally 0 come together to make up the ordinary parallel arrangement. l have shown merely a representative lighting arrangement, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other such arrangements might beused without departing from the scope and spirit of my invention. Each of the local lighting circuits {comprises a number of serially connected are 1am s M, M.

At the distri uting station the auxiliary switchboard W is provided. This auxiliary switchboard will be described in detail later although, as shown in Fig. 1', it will be seen that, broadly, it comprises a plurality of switches, each inserted in one side of a line so as to give auxiliary control foreach local lighting circuit. 4 Thus, the limb a, has the ,switch 6, the limb a, has the switch 7, the

limb a has the switch 8, and the .limb a has the switch 9. These switches are nor- I referred to are connected across the conthese lighting circuits comprises the serially switch on this panel would control thelighting circuit L. These are the ordinary switches, which are turned on at. nightfall to illuminate the streets in the ordinary way and which are opened at the break of day. The distributing station D'-- has the line limbs a36 a a a and 72 to which are connected the transformers T T, T? and T". These transformers feed the local lighting circuits L*,' .L, L and L", and each of connected arc lamps M M Referring to Fig. '2, it is to be understood that the apparatus to the left of the lefthand dot-and-dash line is the special apparatus at the distributing station D. The apparatus between the middle dot-and-dash line and the right hand dot and dash line is that at the central police station. The lines extending between the dot-and-dash lines represent the cables which have been referred to.

The special or auxiliary switch panel W is illustrated more fully in Fig. 2 than in Fig. 1. It will beseen that each of the switches 6, 7, 8 and 9, which are normally. downupon the contacts 11, .11, connected together by the jumpers 10, 10, are pivoted on tlie p'osts 12, 12, The normally open contacts13 and 14c of eachof the switches ductors 15 and 16 which respectively, lead to the contacts 17 and lSof the solenoid swit'chR. 'These contacts 17 and 18 are normally electrically united by the bridge-piece 19, which is carried upon a solenoid core 20 adaptedto be drawn upwardly by the energization of the solenoid winding 21, which is connected in later. l i

Associated with the switches 6, 7, 8 and 9 are the indicating drops 22, 23, 24 and 25,

.a circuit to be described respectively. These drops are. merely indicated by rectangles upon the panel W, but their broad nature is further illustrated above, where their circuit is also shown. It will be seen that they each comprise a winding 26, upon a core 27, an armature 28 pivoted at 29, a latch 30, a contact member 31 which the latch normally holds, and a target 32 which is normally out of view. When any of the windings 26 is energized the armature 28 is attracted, the latch 30 is ralsed, the circuit is broken at 31, and the target is turned to view, as illustrated in' d t lm s in the drawing. All the windings 26 have their right-hand terminals connected together and to a common wire 33, which is connected with the positive pole of the battery B at: the central station. Each of the free terminals of the windings 26 are connected with one or more contacts 34,- 34,

which are associated with keys 35, 35 upon a keyboard K at the police station. These keys are all grounded together to the negative pole of the battery B. It will 110w be clear that each one of the switches 6, 7, 8, and 9 controls a local lighting circuit and that, when it is desired to signal a certain district or beat, the local circuit or circuits "which light that beat must be put under the special control. Thus,-district No. 1 contains lights on local circuits L and L district No. 2 contains lights on local circuits L and L district No. 4 contains lights on local circuits L and L, etc. It will be noted 'that the key 35, N0. 1, has contacts which will close the circuits through -.relays 22 and 23. These relays correspond'to switches 6 and 7, which in'turn correspond to local light circuits L and L When the police headquarters wishes to signal district 0. 1, key 35, No. 1, is depressed and drops .22 and 23 are energized. The corresponding targets drop and thisis a signal to the attendant at the distributing station that the corresponding switches 6 and 7 should be thrown over so as to put the contacts 17 and 18 and-the bridge 19 into the corresponding line limbs in lieu of the jumpers 10, 10.

For a reason which will be described presently,the drops should be restored when the switches are thrown over and I suggest the convenient. arrangement shown in Fig. 3 whereby the handle of the switch may be used to kick the indicator upwardly so as to ,throw the contact piece into engagement with the latch. Since this switch panel WV is in-use only on special occasions, there will not be an attendant there all the time, of course, and I, therefore, provide a bell 36 in the common conductor 33, which is operated by the same current which operates any of the indicator drops. As soon as any of the keys at the police station is depressed,

the bell rings and the attendant immediately goes to the board to see which targets have dropped, and he will throw those switches to change the circuit and-to restore the targets andthe associated parts at the same time. It is'apparent that the different relations between the local light circuits and .the police beats or districts are taken care of by thecontact arrangement for the keys 35. Thus, every key which represents a particular police district, has associated therewith a contact for a relay for everylocal lighting circuit included in that district, either Wholly or in part. It is apparent, of course, that there may be a case where one or two lights might be theonly lights in that district on a certain local cirethe simple wiring between the relays and the keyboard K. Taking district No. 2, for instance, it will be noticed that part of the lights in that district are fed from distributing station D and the others are fed .t'rom distributing station D thus for key 35, No.

2, we have two contacts, one going to the drop at station D whicln represents local circuit L 'and the other leading to the drop at stationl) which represents local lighting circuit L. In each case each particular key controls the proper relays, which in turn givethe indications as to the proper switches representing the light circuits which are to be flashed, as will be pointed out.

It is to be noted that, since the throwing of any of the switches 6, 7, 8 or 9 places the contacts 17 and 18 and the bridge 19 in the corresponding line limb in lieu of the permanent jumper 10, that the light circuit thus connected can be controlled by the "solenoid switch R. In other words, each time that the winding 21 is energized, the circuit between the contacts 17 and 18 is broken and the lights avill be flashed. This solenoid switch must have contact mechanism adapted to carry a heavy current, and in this respect I suggest the use of a solenoid switch. I provide mechanism at .the police station which, when once set, automatically makes and breaks the circuit of this solenoid switch, such operation, being desirable so that manual operation, with its danger of excessively rapid operation, may be avoided.

Thus, at the police station, I provide a switch arm 37 which is pivoted upona post 38 and which is adapted for electrical en.-

- gagement wit the contacts 39, 40 and 41 arranged circu arly about the post 38. The" 1 switch arm 37 isheld in its upper position,

out of engagement with all the contacts, by means of a spring 42. When the switch arm is drawn down and then released it makes engagement .with the three contacts successively and makes nd breaks a. circuit whichwill bh describe presently. In order to make and break the clrcuit three times it is necessary to draw the switch arm down all the way, but. it is-clear' that if it is desired to make and break the circuit but once or twice, this can be accomplished by limiting the extent towhich the switch arm is depressed. A dial or scale 43 is associated with the switch arm and stopping. places are indicated thereon, for a purpose which will be described later.

The switch arm 37 carries a ratchet wheel 44 with which cooperates a pawl 45 mounted upon a spur gear 46 loosely mounted upon the shaft 38 This spur gear meshes with a pinion 47 which carries an escapement wheel 48 with it upon the shaft 49. A pallet 50, pivoted at 51, cooperates with this escapement wheel, this pallet being weighted at 52 so as to time the escapement mechanism.

The three contacts 39, 40 and 41 are connected together and, by means of a condoctor 53, with one terminal of the solenoid winding 21. The terminal of this winding is connected with positive pole of the battery B; by means of a conductor 54. The

negative pole of the battery is connected with the switch arm 37 by means of the conductor 55, and it is now apparent that'as the switch arm 37 makes engagement with contacts 39, 40, and 41, the circuit is closed through the solenoid winding 21 and the battery B. This energizes the winding to lift the core 20, and consequently the bridge 19, and the circuit between the contacts 17' and 18 is broken.

' I provide special mechanism which prevents operation of the automatic make and break mechanism until all the lighting circuits; to be flashed, are set up properly for operation. catch lever 56, pivoted at 57, normally engages with the arm ofthe pallet 50. This catch lever is provided with an armature 58, which is associated with an electromagnet core 59 having the winding 60. This winding is connected in series with the battery B and all the f ontactsiat the indicator drops. it will be 'se 11 that each of the contact arms f 31 of the indicator drops has associated therewith a contact 61, and that the contact arrangements thus formed are connected inseries by conductors 62, 62. The last of the series is connected with the common wire 33 which passes .to the positive pole of the battery B. It will be understood here that the indicator drop contacts at both distributing stationsare all in series and that the conductors 63 and 64 correspond to the conductors 33" and 65. In order that the circuit may not beclosed through the battery B normally, this series circuit is broken be.

tween the switch spring 66 and the contact '67, the switch arm 37 shaving a button 68 which normally holds the spring off the con- 1 tact. Thus, under normal conditions, .al-

though the circuit which includesthe wind- This mechanism is as follows A ing 60, and which may be conveniently referred to as the release circuit, is-closed at all the indicator drop contacts in the. entire system, it is openat the one point 66, 67.

This, of course, is the normal position of the switch arm 37 and when it is drawn down the first circuit change that takes place isthe closing of the circuit at the point 66, 67;

it will be remembered, however, thatv at. this time the attendant at the police station has already depressedone of the keys 35' andthat thecircuit' is broken at one or more places at-the-indicator drop contacts, so the winding 60is not energized until all these vcontacts have beenclosed. As before described, these are all closed by the throwing of the required switches, so it will be seen that after all the circuits have been set up and everything is ready for the flashing, the winding 60 will be energized and the armature 58 will be raised to move the catch lever 56 out of engagement with the arm on the pallet 50, and the escapement mechanism set free to operate. The escapement mechanism is so timed that the arm 37 will rise slowly and so that the solf'noid winding 21 is energized intermittently at the proper intervals. When the arm 37 resumes its normal position the circuit through the release winding 60 is broken and the armature 58 may drop so as to throw the catch lever 56 back into the path of thearm on the pallet. This will prevent further operation of the escapement mechanism.

I shall now append a brief resume of the entire operation of my system.

If the, police headquarters desires .to signal a certain district or beat, say forexample District No. 2, the attendant at the pOllCe station will momentarilydepress key 35, No. 2. By reference to-Fig.' 1, it will be seen that beat Np. 2 is lighted, by local lighting circuit L fed from distributing station D,- and local lightin circuit L, fed from distributing station is\ connected with the proper indicator drop at distributing station D and theother of which is connected with drop 22 at distributing station D. Thus these two drops will beenergized and the bell 36 will ring at both distributing stations, all by means of the current from battery B.' At the same time that these drops are energized, the re-* note that drop 22 has been actuated and he will throw the corresponding switch. As the attendants throw up these switches, the targets are kicked back and the contacts, 31, 61 are closed so as to close the release circuit at these points. It is the attendants duty at the police station to pull down the lever 37 after he has pressed the proper selecting key 35. If he pulls down this lever before the attendants at the distributing stations have set up the circuits, the release 65 circuit remains unenergized and the switch It will be seen that this key No. 2 has twocoiitacts, one of whicharm cannot go back upon its tiined return.

If he waits until after the circuits have been set up, the release circuit is energized just as soon as he starts to pull down the handle and will return immediately when he lets go. In either case, it is impossible to 0 er- -ate the make and break mechanism be ore the lighting circuits are ready to receive the action and there is always the eflective' reciprocable control between the distributing stations and the police station which insists upon proper operation. After the switch arm 37 has been drawn down and, after the release circuit has been energized, the switch arm'is free to travel back and makes and breaks the circuit through the solenoid winding 21. This device R can" beoperated with.

little current and so can the drop and release circuits, and thereis little, if any, necessity for providing for sparking at the contacts. As to the contacts '17, 18 and 19, which are adapted to carry a heavy current, there should be the usual consideration to take care of sparln'ng. As the solenoid winding 21 is energized and deenergized, it makesand breaks the circuit in which its contact parts have been inserted; by the throwing of the 'switches, and it is apparent that the" parallel relation shown on the board ,W in Fig. 2 provides means whereby any number of circuits may be controlled at the same time." The conductors 54 and 53, which proceed to the distributing station D and have a solenoid. winding 21 connected to them, are analogous to the conductors 54 and 53; thi'sconnects all the'solenoid windings 21in parallel and they will all operate under the present system. If it is deemed better practice to have but those which are intended to be effective operate, this may be accomplished by inserting multiple contacts electrically in each of the parallel circuits, placing these multiple contacts along the special switchboard under the mechanical control of the switches.

A code signal arrangement may be carried out by pulling down the switch lever 37, in accordance with the indications on the scale -or dial 43, so as to make and break the circuit a different number of times for different occurrences. ,Difi'erent signals may convey -diflerent meanings to the police oflicer .or J

watchman on the beat. It will be noted that when one of the switches 6, 7, 8- and '9' is thrown over there will be'a momentary interruption in the lighting circuit. This may be desirable since it will attract the attention ofthe olice 'oflicer primarily and, duringthe period which follows he may prepare to carefully observe the code. In other words, the first flash would indicate that a.

code is to follow, while-the other flashes would constitute the codeitself. If fles'red,

however, this preliminaryinterruption 'ay be avoided by providing a switch which makes one circuit before it closes another, and such an arrangement would be perfectly operative in the combination which I propose. It will be noted that the cables which connect the police station and the distributing stations need carry only low tension circuits and that an ordinary signaling current only need be employed. The high tension circuits are confined closely .and properly to'the switchboards. v

It will be noted that the winding 60 is energized during the entire upward travel of the switch arm 37. When, however, the switch arm reaches the limit of its movement the button 68.engages the spring 66 and lifts it ofi the contact .67, thus opening the circuit and releasing the armature 58 so as to stop the escapement mechanism.

- may then throw back those of the switches This brings the entire apparatus back into normal position and into condition for another operation. At the distributing station a pilot'la'mp 69 may be provided in the release circuit. This will keepthe attendant at the distributing station informed of the condition of the release circuit, since it will be lighted during the time that the switch arm is making its upward travel. When the switch arm reaches the upward limit of its travel and breaks the circuit, in other words when the signaling is completed, the pilot lamp is extinguished and the attendant 6, 7, 8 and 9 which have been actuated so as said station, a switch at said station for each to restore the entire system to normal.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that the arrangement herein shown and described might be enlarged and expanded without departing from the spirit and scope of myinvention; a; I

' I claim as new and desire-tofsecure byLet- 'ters .Patent:

1. In combination, an electric power sta. tion, a plurality of circuits fed from sald static electric lamps in each of said circuits, switch at said station for each circuit, an electric device for indicatmg each switch, circuits including said indicating de-l V1068, a second station, and selective switchesat said second station for independently controlling said indicatingcircuits to designate which lamp circuit sw tch is to,be operated. 2. In combination, a distributin station, a plurality of lighting circuits ed from circuit, an electromagnet at each switch, means for select vely operatlngsaid electromagnets, a target and a switch contact controlled by each of said electromagnets, a loop adaptedto be connected in any of said lightingcireuits by its corresponding switch, make-and-break mechanism in' said loop,

contact mechanism for controlling said make-and-break mechanism, escapement controlled driving mechanism for said contact mechanism, means for normally preventing nocaccs operation out said driving mechanism, and a release magnet for said means in circuit with said switch contacts in series.

3. In combination, a distributing station, a plurality of lighting circuits fed from said station, a switch at said station for each circuit, an electromagnet at each switch,

means for selectively operatingsaid electro- 4. In combination, an electric power station, a plurality of circuits fed from said station, electric lamps in each of said circuits, a switch at said station for each. circuit, an electric device for indicating each switch, circuits for said indicating devices,

and means for selectively operating said devices to indicate which lamp circuit switch is to be operated.

5. In combination, an electric power station, a plurality of circuits fed from said station, electric lamps in each of said circuits, a switch at said station for each circuit, an alternative circuit part arranged to be looped into any of said circuits, makeand-break mechanism in said alternative circuit part, an electric device for indicating each switch, circuits for said indicating devices, and ,means for selectively operating said devices to indicate which lamp circuit switch is to be operated.

$6. In combination, an electric power station, a plurality of circuits fed from said station, electric lamps in each of said circuits, a switch at said station for each circuit an alternative circuit part arranged to be looped into any of said circuits,-makeand-break mechanism in said alternative circuit part, means for controlling said .mak'e-and-break mechanism, an electric introlled by each of said electro-magnets, a-

loop adapted to be connected in any of said lighting circuits by its corresponding switch, make-and-break mechanism in said loop, contact mechanism for controlling said makeand-break mechanism, cscapement controlled driving mechanism for said contact mecha-- nism, means for normally preventing operation of said driving mechanism, a release magnet for said means in circuit with said switch contacts in series, and an audible signal in series with said electro-magnets, substantially as described.

9. Incombination, a distributin station, a plurality of lighting circuits fed trom said station, a switch at said station for each circuit, an electro-magnet at each switch, means for selectively operating said electromagnets, a target and a switch contact controlled by each of said electro-magnets, a loop adapted to be connected in any, of said lighting circuits by its corresponding switch, inake-and-break mechanism in said loop, contact mechanism for controlling said make-and-break mechanism, driving mechanism for said contact mechanism, means for preventing operation of said driving mechanism, and a release magnet for said means in circuit with said switch contacts.

10. In combination, a distributing station, a plurality of lighting circuits fed from said station, a switch at said station for each circuit, an electro-magnet at each switch, means for selectively operating said electromagnets, targets controlled by said electromagnets and a switch contact associated with each of said targets, a loop adapted to be connected'in any of said lighting circuits by its corresponding switch, the throwing of said switches being adapted to return said targets, and switch contacts to normal, makeand-break mechanism in said loop, means for driving said make-and-break mechanism, means for preventing operation of said driving mechanism, and a release magnet for said means inserted with said switch cont-acts in series.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 10th day of July, A. D., 1911.

JOHN P. BARRETT. 

